Brandon Routh has admitted he is hoping for a more action-packed return as Superman when he dons the cape to play the man of steel again.

Shooting is set to begin on a sequel to 2006's SUPERMAN RETURNS early next year and Routh, who drew acclaim for his dignified performance as Kal-El in Bryan Singer's film, has said improvements could certainly be made when the Krypton-native returns to the screen.

Talking to ComingSoon.net while promoting his new film Lie to Me, Routh stressed that both he and audiences are waiting for Superman "to actually be able to lay a punch on someone or something".

"I was filming and I thought, 'I haven't really hit anything. I feel like I'm going to need to let some of this anger out'," he said.

"So I'm happy that I think that's going to be a central part of the sequel, getting a good villain that we can actually have physical altercations with."

Routh revealed that Singer is planning to produce a script for the next Superman film - thought to be called Man of Steel - once post-production has finished on his historical drama Valkyrie, and said also said he hopes for a more human angle to be added to the sequel.

"I'd like more humour from Clark [Kent] or just more of Clark and Jimmy [Olsen]. A little bit more of Lois [Lane] and Clark, how we used to see them, a bit more of buddies," he explained.

"Perhaps things will be smoothed over with Superman and Lois and she can afford to be a little bit nicer to Clark.

"I think that's something that people want to see and those are some of the great moments from previous Superman films."